The DayZ Standalone game was initially expected to release before the end of last year but that didnt exactly go according to plan. A number of things happened last year that may have prompted a slight delay of the games development ranging from the imprisonment of two of Bohemia Interactives devs in Greece by some jackass on a powertrip for some rather silly reasons, the need to make the game the way that they wanted to, and maybe the devs even decided to throw caution to the wind and play it safe after the massive backlash that followed The War Zs controversial Foundation release on Steam and its subsequent removal.

In his post, Hall announced that a closed test will soon be held for DayZ that will call on between 500-1000 players to help test the architecture. This will include testing a number of changes to the overhauled inventory system. Hall listed several other changes to the game that also includes players scavenging for parts rather than piles, disease tracking, item durability and more. So if you want those night vision goggles another player is wearing, dont aim for the face unless you want to break them.

"An additional area of change has been to make the inventory system more intuitive along with a key focus on providing visceral feedback on your progress through what inventory you have. The use of drag-and-drop, 3D models rather than 2D pictures, and being able to add items/clothing to your character in 3D in the inventory screen - have all come out of months of design work and research. Im extremely pleased with the results of Jirka and Hladas, two of the programmers who have been working on implementing the design ideas. I believe the changes to this inventory system will fundamentally change the nature of the DayZ experience."

While not going to deep into specifics, Hall also touched on a few other UI changes, new art additions to the game, and progress on the revised maps, which would be going much better if Greek officials weren''t worried about invaders from Mount Olympus.

"The lead architect of the revised (and original) Chernarus map, Ivan Buchta, is still imprisoned in Greece on charges of espionage - and is a great loss to the team. Luckily, through letters, Ivan is able to provide some input and insight into the development of the map. Regardless, the continued imprisonment of him and Martin Pezlar has a significant impact on our ability to redevelop Chernarus."

Once the architecture has been tested and any lingering issues have been fixed a new targeted release window will be set. Check out a few new images from the game along with the full update here.

About The Author

Stacy "Martuk" Jones was a long-time news editor and community manager for many of our previous game sites, such as Age of Conan. Stacy has since moved on to become a masked super hero, battling demons in another dimension.